How to Turn Your Vision into Reality

Visualize and realize.

Crafting a vision — a compelling future, a place where we visualize ourselves, our lives, and our business is a powerful practice.

There’s a reason why companies hire consultants to the tune of millions of dollars to have them be crystal clear about their vision — because, without it, there’s no guiding compass.

However, crafting a vision once is simply not enough. Because we live in in a non-stop world of distraction, stimulus, and noise, it’s crucial to follow timely practices with the intention of integration.

What I’ve noticed during the last decade in the entrepreneurship, personal development, and consulting space is the lack of integration of a high-level vision down to deciding what you do on a Tuesday morning.

In this post, I’ll share 4 ways to ensure your vision not only stays top of mind but becomes your new reality.

Write it down every single day.

Once you’ve got a clear vision for your life and business, it becomes a must to write it down every single day.

This may be simple, but it’s easier said than done. When we start out every morning with a clean slate and force ourselves to articulate our vision, we start to rewire our brains.

By keeping it in mind and non-negotiable, picking our daily priorities, tasks, and whether we say yes or no to lunch with a colleague becomes much, much easier.

ACTION: Write down your vision statement at least once a day, ideally in the morning before doing anything else.

Chunk it down to the simplest iteration.

Big visions are exciting, inspiring, and powerful. Done correctly, they inspire you from within and even get you emotional. However, our minds take big ideas, and far off visions complicate them. We get overwhelmed and then we decide to do nothing.

In my book UnResolution, I advise to start with your one-year vision and then chunk it down to the next 90 days by answering the following question:

What do I need to accomplish and create in the next 90 days to affirm my one year vision is coming true?

Let this become your focus for the quarter. Once complete, I typically take my clients through an exercise to chunk that down to weekly priorities — and ultimately, daily ones.

ACTION: Chunk down your vision into quarterly goals by answering the centering question above. Once accomplished, chunk them down again to weekly and daily actions.

Eliminate all distractions.

After traveling all over the country to events, I’ve noticed one main vision killer: a lack of focus and follow-through.

This is why the next crucial step after chunking down your vision is to eliminate distractions and focus on high-level priority tasks associated with your vision.

I consult with businesses and teach their employees to do “The One Thing” before they check their emails, attend any meetings, check social media, or even turn their phone on.

This first action is likely associated with your vision. It is not urgent, yet it is highly important (and easy to put off for more urgent tasks.)

ACTION: Everyday, identify your “One Thing” in regards to your vision. Do that before anything else.

Delete, automate and delegate.

As we go on about turning our vision into reality, it’s easy to accumulate endless tasks and objectives.

We pile these on and believe more tasks mean more results — yet often, all they do is lead to more stress.

Instead, do a weekly ‘brain dump’ and identify all the tasks that you’re doing that drain your energy and are not associated with your vision, or that someone else can do better. Once complete, delete the unnecessary, wasteful ones. Then, identify the ones you can automate and delegate to someone else.

A powerful vision requires energy and organization, and doing everything in your business is going to absolutely drain you and lead to burnout.

ACTION: Perform a ‘brain dump’ and take inventory of your business right now. Separate them into the three categories: delete, automate and delegate.

Turn your vision into reality.

We’ve identified how to take your grand vision and turn it into reality with simple practices to ensure you get there faster.

As you grow, expand and get closer to your vision: Double down on these practices and watch how your confidence and certainty around your vision increase with time and consistency.Opinions expressed here by Contributors are their own.

Tommy Baker is a writer, speaker, coach and host of the Resist Average Academy, a top-rated iTunes podcast designed to give you the knowledge, inspiration, and action steps to live a life by design—never by default. Tommy lives for the moment someone gets the spark of what’s possible and then crafting a plan to bring that vision to life through his mastermind groups, podcasts, books, courses and more.